Oregon State University smoking cessation program supports healthy student choices

View full sizeAdam Fargher, an OSU student who also works as a mechanic in the MU bowling alley, recently quit smoking with help from Student Health Services. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

As a teenager, Adam Fargher ignored peer pressure to smoke,
but in college, the social appeal of cigarettes and conversation won him over. Now
a junior in electrical engineering at Oregon State University, he started smoking pipes, eventually moving
onto cigarettes.

Meanwhile his wife, who had given up years of cigarette
smoking before she met him, quickly fell back into her old habits.

“She had a rough time quitting, and I brought that back into
our home,” Fargher said. Although he didn’t consider himself a chain smoker,
Fargher felt bad that what he considered his casual habit was negatively
impacting his wife.

“I felt responsible for her starting again, so I decided to
stop,” he said.

But even though Fargher’s smoking habit was what he
considered ‘casual,’ quitting was not as simple as he expected.

“I tried to quit on my own, cold turkey,” he said. “But
after three or four weeks, the cravings were killing me.”

After his first attempt at quitting failed, Fargher was
frustrated.

“You have to admit you’re addicted, and that’s hard, because
we want to be in control,” he said. “I came to a point where I just couldn’t do
it on my own.”

So when Fargher saw a poster for a free tobacco cessation
program through Student Health Services at OSU, he decided to reach out, even
though it hurt his pride.

“My heart was beating hard when I picked up that phone,” he
said. “You’ve got to humble yourself. You’re kind of turning yourself in.”

But Fargher quickly found that the smoking cessation
sessions he had with Stacey Edwards really helped him focus on very tangible
objectives. The free nicotine gum he received through the program also gave him
a chance to tackle his cravings, and keep him on track. He soon found he had to
use the gum a lot less often than he’d expected, and four weeks into the
program, was only chewing one piece a week.

Student Health Services is now able to offer free nicotine
gum and patches to students thanks to a gift from PacificSource. Edwards, Peer
Health Advocate
coordinator and Smoke-free OSU project director chair, is one of the Student
Health Services employees who provides cessation support to students. She said
being able to offer patches and gum for free is a big boon to getting students
on the path to quitting.

“Many have tried
quitting ‘cold turkey’ without using nicotine patches or gum because of their
perceived high cost,” Edwards said. “Unfortunately, a very small percentage of
people who use this method are successful in quitting. With the offer of
free tobacco cessation counseling and nicotine patches or gum, it reduces that
financial barrier for OSU students and makes the program more accessible for
them.”

Word is getting
out about the program. At this time last year, only 12 students had
participated in tobacco cessation sessions. This year, Student Health Services
has seen 44 visits so far.

This time, Fargher said he feels like he’ll really be able
to walk away from smoking, and said part of his determination is to be a smoke
free family before he and his wife have children.

The fact that OSU will become a smoke free campus on Sept. 1,
2012, has also influenced his decision. He thinks the move to a smoke free
environment will help support the choices he’s making, and will help others
quit.

“Even seeing cigarette butts on the ground is a trigger,” he
said. “And seeing people socially smoking is hard.”

By reducing the visual signs of smoking around campus, those
who have chosen to quit will have their behavior reinforced, and won’t have to
face triggers that make giving up smoking so difficult.

“Already, I have
worked with students who decided to quit because of the upcoming smoke-free
campus policy,” Edwards said. “They don’t want the inconvenience of walking off
campus to smoke and/or they have wanted to quit and having a smoke-free campus
gives them the supportive environment in which to do so. It’s amazing how seeing
people smoking outside of campus buildings has caused many to relapse”